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Learn from the British Labour Party family brawl: Mallick

Labour, like the NDP, may be injured at the moment but it need not split, it need not die

British opposition Labour Party Leader, Jeremy Corbyn (right) and
British opposition Labour party's Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer John McDonnell, reacts following Corbyn's keynote speech on his party's plans for Britain, in central London on Thursday. "The party, as led by traditional extremist Jeremy Corbyn, expects to lose elections as it turns sharply back to the left, the plan being to destroy the party in order to save it," writes Heather Mallick. (ADRIAN DENNIS / AFP/GETTY IMAGES)

I hate you. I hate you back. I hate your facial arrangements. I hate the moving parts of your throat. I hate the towel you used this morning. You canard, you berk, you bucket of discount Scottish steam, etc.

I have been watching aghast as the British Labour Party publicly self-destructs, possibly permanently. Oh, the insults, the bitterness, the female MPs abused, the actual bricks thrown. A dog whistled, a Labour MP was murdered, a Jewish Labour MP abandoned.

The hatred of each for each — Labour (unelectable Extreme Left) vs. New Labour (discredited but thrice-elected Tony Blair Left) — is so extreme that you assemble bandages as you watch the video.

All political parties can learn from watching it.

On a BBC panel last week, Labour shadow chancellor John McDonnell and Blair’s former communications chief Alastair Campbell — a famously foul-mouthed Scot but effective — had agreed to be personally polite. Campbell chafed. “I’ve come on here to be as nice to you as I possibly can and I’ll tell you why: I really care about the Labour Party and I worry that you and yours are destroying it. And what’s more, I actually worry you don’t even care.”

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McDonnell called this “nauseating” and the thing erupted. Post-broadcast, the two men allegedly nearly came to blows.

The fighting has been called “Lord of the Flies” with activists being accused of using Labour as parasites use a “host body,” among other insect metaphors.

But Campbell’s right. The party, as led by traditional extremist Jeremy Corbyn, expects to lose elections as it turns sharply back to the left, the plan being to destroy the party in order to save it. Labour MPs hate this. But Corbyn, about to win a leadership contest this month, absolutely will not leave.

We live in teetering times. Aside from mad militarism, “everything else about our age reminds me of the 1930s,” storied centrist politician Paddy Ashdown told the Guardian this week. Did we ever think we’d see the U.S. Republican Party taken over by extremism, nay, Trumpian lunacy? Surely it was already extreme enough. Did we ever think the nation that saved Europe from Nazi slavery would vote for Brexit and turn its back on the continent?

In this era, anything is possible.

A recent Forum opinion poll for the Star has suggested that two-thirds of Canadians approve of the fuzzy concept that prospective immigrants be screened for “anti-Canadian values.”

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau stepped in and advocated reason over passion. Canadians have always feared immigrants, he said, including Italian grandmothers who still don’t speak English, and yet their children and grandchildren belong beautifully to this country. Don’t be “overly impatient,” he said.

It was a rational remark that suddenly made nonsense of Conservative leadership candidate Kellie Leitch’s crude shout-out to the suspicious among us. It calmed things down.

How foolish is Corbyn’s party to flail rather than reason. Yes, British life is still all about class warfare, which bedevils that country just as racism soaks the U.S. If enough Americans vote for Trump, they may wreck their nation. If Britain becomes a one-party nation with the Tories cosying up to racist U.K. Independence Party (Ukip), it faces shrinkage and ruin.

None of this is necessary, which is what Campbell said. Labour was injured, but it need not split, it need not die.

Post-Harper Conservatives, watch and learn.

Don’t let Doug Ford wedge his foot in the door, or Brad Trost, or Leitch for that matter. New Democrats, don’t let Thomas Mulcair hang around like a wretched dinner guest. Stay normal and democracy will thrive. Ukip and Trump are waiting at the door.

“There is something really nasty here,” Ashdown said in distress. “I remember saying about three years ago, there is a monster below the placid surface of British politics, and it has bloody well emerged.”

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